62 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



with the primitive Indian in hardihood and instinctive wisdom 

 While the French portion of the population retain the thoughtless 

 levity and frivolous disposition of their original source, the Ameri- 

 cans of St. Louis, who may lay claim to be native, as it were, are 

 as strongly distinguished for determination and energy of character 

 as they are for physical strength and animal courage ; and are re- 

 markable, at the same time, for a singular aptitude in carrying out 

 commercial enterprises to successful terminations, apparently in- 

 compatible with the thirst of adventure and excitement which 

 forms so prominent a feature in their character. In St. Louis and 

 with her merchants have originated many commercial enterprises 

 of gigantic speculation, not confined to the immediate locality or 

 to the distant Indian fur trade, but embracing all parts of the 

 continent, and even a portion of the Old World. And here it 

 must be remembered that St. Louis is situated inland, at a dis- 

 tance of upward of one thousand miles from the sea, and three 

 thousand from the capital of the United States. 



Besides her merchants and upper class, who form a little aris- 

 tocracy even here, a large portion of her population, still connected 

 with the Indian and fur trade, preserve all their original charac- 

 teristics, unacted upon by the influence of advancing civilization. 

 There is, moreover, a large floating population of foreigners of all 

 nations, who must possess no little amount of enterprise to be 

 tempted to this spot, whence they spread over the remote western 

 tracts, still infested by the savage ; so that, if any of their blood 

 is infused into the native population, the characteristic energy and 

 enterprise is increased, and not tempered down by the foreign cross. 



But, perhaps, the most singular of the casual population are 

 the mountaineers, who, after several seasons spent in trapping, 

 and with good store of dollars, arrive from the scene of their ad- 

 ventures, wild as savages, determined to enjoy themselves for a 

 time, in all the gayety and dissipation of the western city. In 

 one of the back streets of the town is a tavern well known as the 



